One Bowl Pumpkin Bread

The smell of pumpkin bread baking in the oven is one of the best fall smells out there. Pumpkin pie is close, but pumpkin breads tend to be even more aromatic, and their long baking time means that there will be plenty of time for the smell of pumpkin, cinnamon and other spices to fill up the kitchen. A good pumpkin bread should be moist, tender and loaded with pumpkin flavor. It should also be easy to make, so that you can whip it up quickly when you get the urge to do some fall baking, and it doesn’t get much easier than my One Bowl Pumpkin Bread.

This is a lovely quick bread that can be mixed up in just one bowl, and it requires no special tools to bring the ingredients together. And you would never guess how easy it is to make when you taste the finished bread! The loaf is very moist and tender, and it has a great balance of brown sugar and spice flavors that compliment the pumpkin without overshadowing it. The recipe starts with a generous amount of pumpkin puree. I like to use canned puree, since it is an ingredient that I always have on hand in my pantry during the fall, however you can also use homemade pumpkin puree if you have some in your fridge.

I stirred some roasted pumpkin seeds into my loaf to give it a little bit of crunch, though toasted pecans and walnuts are also excellent nuts to use in a pumpkin bread. If you don’t like nuts, you can simply leave them out, or you can replace them with chocolate chips! By mixing up the mix-ins, you can easily make many different pumpkin bread variations using this one basic recipe. I enjoy this loaf plain or when topped with a little bit of softened, salted butter. It is a great breakfast bread, but it can also make a lovely dessert when served with a cup of coffee or tea after dinner.

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×5-inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, egg, vegetable oil, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt until ingredients are very smooth.
Add in the flour, baking soda and baking powder, then whisk until the batter is well blended and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
Stir in seeds, nuts or chocolate chips, if desired.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

1 Comment

WOW. this is *so* good. I subbed melted butter for vegetable oil, just because I love butter, and it was fantastic. I’m sure it would have been fantastic with vegetable oil, too. to keep it a one-bowl recipe, I just melted the butter in the bowl in the microwave first. I use The Kitchn’s pumpkin pie spice recipe (http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-pumpkin-pie-spice-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-69245) and it worked beautifully. the toasted pepitas were fantastic in it. this is my new pumpkin bread recipe. thank you so much!